{"id":31367,"date":"2024-03-27T12:23:30","date_gmt":"2024-03-27T16:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=31367"},"modified":"2024-03-27T12:23:31","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T16:23:31","slug":"modeling-social-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=31367","title":{"rendered":"modeling social reality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’m working on an article and have recently posted various excerpts in draft form.* This is the current outline:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. A model is a simplified representation of social reality that may take the form of a diagram, a story, a thought-experiment, an ideal-type, or an analogy to something that’s better understood.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Human beings use models to navigate the social world.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Judgment (phronesis<\/em>) requires choosing and applying models of social reality.  <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Social models characteristically have empirical and normative aspects (both \u201cfacts\u201d and \u201cvalues\u201d).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Models can be categorized by their forms, e.g., root-cause, cyclical, genealogical, historical-institutionalist, organizational, game-theoretical, interest-group-coalition, etc.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. A model offers guidance, much as a fable suggests a moral (Cartwright 1999; Johnson 2020).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. The empirical details of a model should be testable and falsifiable, but new evidence typically modifies<\/em> a model; it doesn\u2019t invalidate<\/em> the model. This is because (a) the model has normative aspects that are not empirically falsifiable; and<\/span> (b) methods, concepts, sources, normative principles, and specific facts interrelate.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. Models are wise or unwise, not true or false. The best model is the one that does the most good, not the one that is most correct.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  9. The logic of applying a model to a given case is abductive<\/em> (per C.S. Pierce), not inductive<\/em> or deductive<\/em>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  10. Choosing a good model requires understanding and considering other options; it\u2019s comparative.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  11. Therefore, (a) good education for civic life involves exploring multiple models, never one model; and<\/span>; (b) good participation in civic life involves sharing one\u2019s model and listening to others.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    *See choosing models that illuminate issues\u2013on the logic of abduction in the social sciences and policy<\/a>; different kinds of social models<\/a>; social education as learning to improve models<\/a>; making our models explicit<\/a> …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I’m working on an article and have recently posted various excerpts in draft form.* This is the current outline: *See choosing models that illuminate issues\u2013on the logic of abduction in the social sciences and policy; different kinds of social models; social education as learning to improve models; making our models explicit …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31367"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31372,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31367\/revisions\/31372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}